


Cats in Space and Other Cool Books

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Embarrassing Older Cousins, Library AU, Library Assistant!Otabek, M/M, Yuri Reads a Lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 20:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13842654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Otabek, as a library assistant, enjoys his job very much.  One library patron in particular stands out as the coolest, though.





	Cats in Space and Other Cool Books

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tuples](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuples/gifts).



> #25 "librarian/avid reader au" with Otabek/Yuri :D Thank you in advance! :D

Being a librarian was quite the rewarding job. Otabek loved helping kids discover new worlds, he didn’t mind helping older kids with research projects, and running classes and workshops was almost always fun.

There was one person, though, who was Otabek’s absolute favorite. Yuri came in every day after school to curl up in one of the library’s comfortable chairs with a book. When Otabek first started, he’d noticed the boy, but he didn’t really pay much attention to him. Too much to learn about the library to worry about one individual person.

When he did start paying attention, he saw that Yuri was reading about some pretty cool things. Cats of all kinds – pets, large cats, cat conservation, feral cats, wild cats – motorcycles, music, figure skating, Japan, space, dystopias… Otabek wanted to get to know him, but didn’t want to bother him while he was reading.

Then one day, Yuri came up to the desk. “Your system says you have a book called _Cats in Space and Other Places_ but I can’t find it on the shelves. Can you help me find it?”

“Sure. Let me just check to make sure it isn’t checked out.” Otabek quickly checked the computer and verified that it should be in the library. “Cats in Space, huh? Sounds cool.”

“Yeah, it does. Hope it lives up to the title.”

“Is it cat aliens, or normal cats that have been sent into space?”

Yuri shrugged. “No idea. I’m just going on the title here.”

It took a while, but Otabek finally found the book hiding in the section about knitting. “I apologize for the clearly misshelved book. I hope you enjoy it. Do you want to check it out, or read it here?”

“I’ll read it here, but I’ll go ahead and check it out anyway. That way I can take it with me so I’ll know where it is tomorrow.”

Later that day, Yuri came back to Otabek. “It’s both.”

“Hmm?”

“It’s both alien cats and normal cats that have been sent into space.”

“Are you happy with it?”

“I love it. It’s a collection of short stories, and the ones I’ve gotten to so far have been interesting.”

“Glad to be of service.”

“What’s your name?”

“Otabek Altin.”

“Nice to meet you, Otabek. Thanks again for helping me find the book, I know that search must’ve taken you away from what you’re supposed to be doing.” Yuri wandered off before Otabek could tell him that assisting patrons was what he was supposed to be doing.

.

After that, Yuri made sure to say hello to Otabek when he came in and when he left. When Otabek wasn’t busy with other patrons, Yuri would talk to him to get advice about books or new topics to read about. It was the best thing about Otabek’s job.

One day, Otabek’s coworker Leo came up to him when he came in. “Hey, there was a guy here looking for you yesterday. He didn’t seem to understand the concept of days off when I tried to tell him why you weren’t here. Vacation, he got, so I eventually told him you were taking a one-day vacation.”

“How do you not understand what a day off is?” Leo just shrugged, so Otabek continued, “Did he say what he wanted?”

“Nope. Just said he’d come back today. Tall guy, platinum blond hair, Russian accent, can’t miss him.”

Otabek’s brow wrinkled. Yuri…? It didn’t quite fit, Yuri’s hair was more golden, and he was a student and ought to understand what a day off was. He couldn’t think of anyone else who’d be asking for him by name. “Thanks.” He went about his day like usual, reshelving books, looking for books in odd places, sneaking peeks at books he thought might interest Yuri.

He was crouching to put away some books on the bottom shelf in natural disasters when he heard an unfamiliar Russian voice. “Otabek?”

“That’s me.” He stood up and looked at the guy who addressed him. He certainly fit the description Leo gave him. “What can I do for you?”

“I came to thank you for getting Yuri to take such an interest in reading. I know it’s hard, changing from Cyrillic to Latin, so when he came here I told him to spend an hour a day here at the library practicing. The first couple of weeks, I had to practically drag him in! Now he stays here much longer than the hour I told him to, and he comes home full of interesting things he’d read that day.”

Huh. Otabek had just assumed Yuri had been around for a while, as comfortable as he was in the library. “Who are you?”

“Yuri’s cousin. He came to America to live with our grandfather after his other grandfather died.”

“He’d mentioned that. So…” Otabek thought back. This clearly wasn’t Mila, and Yuri had said that Georgi was almost never around. He probably wouldn’t have noticed a change in Yuri’s behavior. “You must be Viktor.”

“Indeed! Keep in mind that Yuri is a teenager when he starts talking about me, please. I promise I’m really not that horrible!” Viktor winked at him.

“Of course. It’s nice to meet you.”

When Yuri came in that afternoon, Otabek had to ask. “Why does Viktor not understand the idea of a day off?”

“Huh?”

“He came in yesterday looking for me. I was off, and he didn’t understand what Leo was trying to tell him.”

Yuri growled and rolled his eyes. “Sorry about him. He’s an idiot. His job’s all online, and the only time he takes a day off is when he’s going on vacation. Even then, he’ll usually do as much as his idiot husband will let him do – although Piglet’s just as bad about working through vacation, really. He doesn’t take days off either.”

“Must be nice to have a job you love so much you never need to take a day off.”

“I know! So what did Viktor want, anyway? How embarrassed should I be about him?”

“Um… probably a lot. He said he had to force you to come at first and thanked me for changing that.”

Yuri rolled his eyes. “For him, that’s not bad. It’s true, at least. I like reading just fine, but it was kind of humiliating at first when I could barely manage The Cat in the Hat. It got better once I got into books written for people at least half my age.”

Otabek winced in sympathy. “Yeah, I can see that. He seemed to think it was my doing, though, or he’d have passed along his thanks to Leo or one of the others yesterday…”

“Yeah, well…” Yuri’s ears went pink. “I talk about you a lot. On days you’re not here, I don’t even come to the library, I stay home and read whatever I’ve got checked out. Viktor and Grandpa don’t care since I’m here so much anyway. So he’s not… exactly wrong?”

“Oh. You hang out here to spend time with me?”

“Yeah. I know this is your job and all, so I wasn’t gonna do anything about it, but I kinda have a crush on you and you’ve never seemed to mind me hanging out…”

“Next time I have a day off, we should do something. Hang out somewhere. Then I’m not at work and it wouldn’t be creepy for you to do something about your crush.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. What do you wanna do? I was gonna spend some time mixing music, I could show you how it works.”

“That’d be awesome. Sounds great.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Cats in Space and Other Stories](https://www.amazon.com/Cats-Space-Other-Places-Fawcett/dp/0671721186)


End file.
